The most relevant KPI’s of Intellectual Capital for social cooperative enterprises

Purpose-The paper aims to identify the main value drivers of intellectual capital (i.e. human, relational and structural capital) which significantly affect the value creation process by social cooperative enterprises. Design/methodology/approach-A survey has been conducted involving 151 Italian social cooperatives which provide social, educational and health care services (A-type) or work integration for disadvantage people (B-type). We have developed 22 Key performance indicators able to map the three components of IC for social cooperatives according to the extant literature about NPOs (Non-Profit Organizations) and IC (Intellectual Capital).The descriptive statistical analysis allows to assess the differences among the intellectual capital components according to the geographical localization and the belonging sector of social cooperatives. Findings –The cooperative enterprises which recorded an employment growth in 2015 represent 54% of sampled cooperatives and they are mainly located in the North of Italy. The A-type social cooperatives are characterized by the highest level of graduate employees and yearly training hours per employee. The social cooperatives belonging to a network represent 74.83% of the sample. The network allows to access to a wide range of services in support of the core activities. The A-type social cooperatives express a better judgement about the quality of their relationships with the customers, the community and institutions. These enterprises, especially if they are located in the North and Centre, allocate greater resources to the information and communication technology, they guarantee a greater access to the intranet network and they are more innovative and able to provide new services. One or more certifications are owned by 79.47% of sampled enterprises. The adoption of quality certifications is more common among the A-type social cooperatives located in the South. Originality/value-We focus the attention on the Non-profit sector that is still scarcely studied concerning the role of IC and its effect on the economic and mission-based performance of social enterprises. The social cooperatives are knowledge-intensive enterprises, mission-driver organizations and characterized by human-capital intensive processes and they provide services with a high relational content. It is important to understand how the geographical localization and the sector influence these characteristics.